AUSTRALIA
Man deported for ‘depravity’
A Malaysian tourist was yesterday kicked out of the country after videos showing “extreme sexual depravity and horrific violence” were found on his smartphone during a routine baggage check at Perth Airport. The 43-year-old man, who was not named, arrived on a flight from Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, when the shocking material was discovered. He was held in immigration detention and sent home yesterday after his tourist visa was canceled and his smartphone confiscated. Australian Border Force regional commander for Western Australia Mark Wilson said the images were abhorrent and contravened government regulations, without going into details of what was depicted. “Videos depicting extreme sexual depravity and acts of horrific violence are not acceptable in our community and anyone caught engaging in this behavior risks forfeiting their right to be here,” Wilson said.
CHINA
Industrial accident kills 19
A blast in an industrial park in a southwestern province has killed 19 people and injured 12 others, Xinhua news agency said yesterday. The blast occurred at a Yibin Hengda Technology Co chemical plant in an industrial park in the city of Yibin in Sichuan Province at 6:30pm on Thursday, Xinhua said. Xinhua quoted the Jiangan County Government as saying that the fire was put out yesterday morning and the injured were in a stable condition.
INDONESIA
Papuan leaders protest raid
Papua Province leaders have protested a military and police operation against separatists that they said endangered the lives of villagers in the remote easternmost province. Nduga Regent Yairus Gwijangge said security forces on Wednesday fired on Alguru village with helicopter sorties in an attempt to root out independence fighters they believed were based there. “Thank God there was no reports of casualties, but we regret that they did not warn us before launching the attacks,” Gwijangge said. “It caused panic among villagers,” he said, adding that he had complained to the army and police paramilitary forces. “The forces have to be withdrawn,” he added. Yunus Wonda, the head of Papua Province’s parliament, condemned the operation and yesterday called on security forces to leave the occupied village, saying that villagers were “traumatized.” An Amnesty International investigation released earlier this month said the police and military are responsible for at least 95 unlawful killings in Papua and West Papua provinces since 2010, including targeted slayings of activists. No casualties have been reported. Local police chief Yan Pieter Reba said security forces were responding to attacks by gunmen that killed paramilitary police and civilians.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
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